Constitutional Amendments

Constitutional Amendments PDF Author: Richard Albert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190640499
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions is both a roadmap for navigating the intellectual universe of constitutional amendments and a blueprint for building and improving the rules of constitutional change. Drawing from dozens of constitutions in every region of the world, this book blends theory with practice to answer two all-important questions: what is an amendment and how should constitutional designers structure the procedures of constitutional change? The first matters now more than ever. Reformers are exploiting the rules of constitutional amendment, testing the limits of legal constraint, undermining the norms of democratic government, and flouting the constitution as written to create entirely new constitutions that masquerade as ordinary amendments. The second question is central to the performance and endurance of constitutions. Constitutional designers today have virtually no resources to guide them in constructing the rules of amendment, and scholars do not have a clear portrait of the significance of amendment rules in the project of constitutionalism. This book shows that no part of a constitution is more important than the procedures we use change it. Amendment rules open a window into the soul of a constitution, exposing its deepest vulnerabilities and revealing its greatest strengths. The codification of amendment rules often at the end of the text proves that last is not always least.

Constitutional Amendments

Constitutional Amendments PDF Author: Richard Albert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190640499
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions is both a roadmap for navigating the intellectual universe of constitutional amendments and a blueprint for building and improving the rules of constitutional change. Drawing from dozens of constitutions in every region of the world, this book blends theory with practice to answer two all-important questions: what is an amendment and how should constitutional designers structure the procedures of constitutional change? The first matters now more than ever. Reformers are exploiting the rules of constitutional amendment, testing the limits of legal constraint, undermining the norms of democratic government, and flouting the constitution as written to create entirely new constitutions that masquerade as ordinary amendments. The second question is central to the performance and endurance of constitutions. Constitutional designers today have virtually no resources to guide them in constructing the rules of amendment, and scholars do not have a clear portrait of the significance of amendment rules in the project of constitutionalism. This book shows that no part of a constitution is more important than the procedures we use change it. Amendment rules open a window into the soul of a constitution, exposing its deepest vulnerabilities and revealing its greatest strengths. The codification of amendment rules often at the end of the text proves that last is not always least.

English Language Constitutional Amendments

English Language Constitutional Amendments PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional amendments
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Get Book Here

Book Description


Perfecting the Constitution

Perfecting the Constitution PDF Author: Darren Patrick Guerra
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739183869
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
He who can change the Constitution controls the Constitution. So who does control the Constitution? The answer has always been: “the people.” The people control the Constitution via the Article V amending process outlined in the Constitution itself. Changes can only be made through Article V and its formal procedures. Article V has always provided a means of perfecting the Constitution in an explicit, democratically authentic, prudent, and deliberative manner. In addition to changing the Constitution Article V also allowed the people to perfect and preserve their Constitution at the same time. In recent years Article V has come under attack by influential legal scholars who criticize it for being too difficult, undemocratic, and too formal. Such scholars advocate for ignoring Article V in favor of elite adaptation of the Constitution or popular amendment through national referendums. In making their case, critics also assume that Article V is an unimportant and expendable part of the Constitutional structure. One notable scholar called the Constitution “imbecilic” because of Article V. This book shows that, to the contrary, Article V is a unique and powerful extension of the American tradition of written constitutionalism. It was a logical extension of American constitutional development and it was a powerful tool used by the Federalists to argue for ratification of the new Constitution. Since then it has served as a means of “perfecting” the US Constitution for over 200 years via a wide range of amendments. Contrary to contemporary critics, the historical evidence shows Article V to be a vital element in the Constitutional architecture, not an expendable or ancillary piece. This book defends Article V against critics by showing that it is neither too difficult, undemocratic, nor too formal. Furthermore, a positive case is made that Article V remains the most clear and powerful way to register the sovereign desires of the American public with regard to alterations of their fundamental law. In the end, Article V is an essential bulwark to maintaining a written Constitution that secures the rights of the people against both elites and themselves.

The Liberty Amendments

The Liberty Amendments PDF Author: Mark R. Levin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451606273
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Mark Levin presents a proposal for new constitutional amendments to fix our broken country"--

Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments

Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments PDF Author: Yaniv Roznai
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198768796
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book Here

Book Description
Can constitutional amendments be unconstitutional? Using theoretical and comparative approaches, Roznai establishes the nature and scope of constitutional amendment powers by focusing on substantive limitations, looking at their prevalence in practice and the conceptual coherence of the very idea of limitations to constitutional amendment powers.

The Constitution of the United States of America as Amended

The Constitution of the United States of America as Amended PDF Author: United States
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160790911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 92

Get Book Here

Book Description
House Document 110-50. Presented by Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania. July 20, 2007. Printed pursuant to H. Con. Res. 139. Includes a historical note. 110th Congress, 1st Session. Item 1004-E. Other related products: The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, 2008 Supplement, Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 26, 2008 can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/052-071-01489-6 Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, 2010 Supplement, Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States can be found here:https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/052-071-01543-4 The Constitution of the United States of America, Analysis and Interpretation, Centennial Edition, Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 28, 2012 can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/052-071-01561-2 The Constitution of the United States of America, Analysis and Interpretation 2014 Supplement: Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court to July 1, 2014 can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/052-071-01574-4

Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law

Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law PDF Author: Maurice Adams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316883256
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 559

Get Book Here

Book Description
Rule of law and constitutionalist ideals are understood by many, if not most, as necessary to create a just political order. Defying the traditional division between normative and positive theoretical approaches, this book explores how political reality on the one hand, and constitutional ideals on the other, mutually inform and influence each other. Seventeen chapters from leading international scholars cover a diverse range of topics and case studies to test the hypothesis that the best normative theories, including those regarding the role of constitutions, constitutionalism and the rule of law, conceive of the ideal and the real as mutually regulating.

Constitution

Constitution PDF Author: United States
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

Get Book Here

Book Description


The English Language Amendment

The English Language Amendment PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on the Constitution
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bilingualism
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment

The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment PDF Author: Randy E. Barnett
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674257766
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 489

Get Book Here

Book Description
A renowned constitutional scholar and a rising star provide a balanced and definitive analysis of the origins and original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment profoundly changed the Constitution, giving the federal judiciary and Congress new powers to protect the fundamental rights of individuals from being violated by the states. Yet, according to Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick, the Supreme Court has long misunderstood or ignored the original meaning of the amendmentÕs key clauses, covering the privileges and immunities of citizenship, due process of law, and the equal protection of the laws. Barnett and Bernick contend that the Fourteenth Amendment was the culmination of decades of debates about the meaning of the antebellum Constitution. Antislavery advocates advanced arguments informed by natural rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the common law. They also utilized what is today called public-meaning originalism. Although their arguments lost in the courts, the Republican Party was formed to advance an antislavery political agenda, eventually bringing about abolition. Then, when abolition alone proved insufficient to thwart Southern repression and provide for civil equality, the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted. It went beyond abolition to enshrine in the Constitution the concept of Republican citizenship and granted Congress power to protect fundamental rights and ensure equality before the law. Finally, Congress used its powers to pass Reconstruction-era civil rights laws that tell us much about the original scope of the amendment. With evenhanded attention to primary sources, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment shows how the principles of the Declaration eventually came to modify the Constitution and proposes workable doctrines for implementing the key provisions of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment.